The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
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Narrated by:
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George K. Wilson
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By:
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Leo Tolstoy
About this listen
How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth? This novella was the artistic culmination of a profound spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, a nine-year period following the publication of Anna Karenina during which he wrote not a word of fiction. A thoroughly absorbing and, at times, terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death, it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.
Also included in this volume are "The Forged Coupon," "After the Dance," "My Dream," "There Are No Guilty People," and "The Young Tsar."
©1923 Public Domain (P)2009 TantorEditorial reviews
The title story of this collection, a novella written by Tolstoy after the author's conversion to Christianity, tells the simple, affecting story of the main character's death and the ambitious, successful, and unreflective life that preceded it. Narrator George K. Wilson's characterizations are clear and compelling. He models the protagonist's angst, bewilderment, and agony skillfully, and renders other characters distinctly but without overemphasizing their differences. It's a well-balanced narration that is easy to follow and that brings home the emotional punch of Ivan Ilych's stirring last weeks, days, and moments. Other stories in this well-done set include "The Forged Coupon," "After the Dance," "My Dream," "There Are No Guilty People," and "The Young Tsar."
Critic reviews
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,615
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,208
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,208
Hailed as one of the world’s masterpieces of psychological realism, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high-court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face-to-face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Elegant, simple, and true
- By Alexandria on 09-22-13
By: Leo Tolstoy
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 92
Leo Tolstoy is quite simply one of the greatest writers to ever set pen to paper. Immortalized by such epic novels as War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy's genius was also readily apparent in his short fiction. The Death of Ivan Ilych follows the career of the unremarkable title character, who does not question his desire to live an "easy, agreeable, gay and always decorous" life, until he is lying on his death bed.
-
1 out of 5 stars
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Some Things are Better on the Page
- By Roy on 04-12-09
By: Leo Tolstoy
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The Death of Ivan Ilych
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Soren Filipski
- Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 183
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 156
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 152
In his perceptive and moving depiction of Ivan Ilych, a worldly careerist facing his own mortality in the midst of a self-absorbed family and indifferent colleagues, Tolstoy provides one of literature's greatest and most memorable reflections on the meaning of the good life and on life as preparation for death.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great experience
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-16
By: Leo Tolstoy
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- A Leo Tolstoy Short Story
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Bill DeWees
- Length: 2 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 477
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 427
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 422
The brilliance of this story is in how a normal bureaucrat, a judge in this case, has a small accident that winds up gradually taking his life. As he deals with this incident, with hope at first and then despair, he comes to terms with his family, his life, and the mediocrities that we all suffer with, except for the exceptional few. This story rings a particularly poignant note for those in early middle age facing the next part of their lives. This story is considered Tolstoy's best.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book, Great Price, Good Narration
- By Michael on 03-05-13
By: Leo Tolstoy
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The Death of Ivan Ilych
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Matt Stewart
- Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 48
Leo Tolstoy's late masterpiece on dying and the unravelling of the values of his middle-class protagonist.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Truly engaging
- By Tom Fallon on 05-13-22
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession
- By: Leo Tolstoy, Peter Carson - translator
- Narrated by: Ken Kliban
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
A pairing of Tolstoy's most spiritual and existential works of fiction and nonfiction from the renowned translator of Turgenev and Chekhov. In the last two days of his own life, Peter Carson completed these new translations of The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession before he succumbed to cancer in January 2013. In Carson's shimmering prose, these two transcendent works are presented in their most faithful rendering in English.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great Tolstoy Intro; Ilyich Narration is Painful
- By Rich on 04-03-16
By: Leo Tolstoy, and others
-
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,615
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,208
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,208
Hailed as one of the world’s masterpieces of psychological realism, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high-court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face-to-face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Elegant, simple, and true
- By Alexandria on 09-22-13
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 92
Leo Tolstoy is quite simply one of the greatest writers to ever set pen to paper. Immortalized by such epic novels as War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy's genius was also readily apparent in his short fiction. The Death of Ivan Ilych follows the career of the unremarkable title character, who does not question his desire to live an "easy, agreeable, gay and always decorous" life, until he is lying on his death bed.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Some Things are Better on the Page
- By Roy on 04-12-09
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Death of Ivan Ilych
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Soren Filipski
- Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 183
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 156
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 152
In his perceptive and moving depiction of Ivan Ilych, a worldly careerist facing his own mortality in the midst of a self-absorbed family and indifferent colleagues, Tolstoy provides one of literature's greatest and most memorable reflections on the meaning of the good life and on life as preparation for death.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great experience
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-16
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- A Leo Tolstoy Short Story
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Bill DeWees
- Length: 2 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 477
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 427
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 422
The brilliance of this story is in how a normal bureaucrat, a judge in this case, has a small accident that winds up gradually taking his life. As he deals with this incident, with hope at first and then despair, he comes to terms with his family, his life, and the mediocrities that we all suffer with, except for the exceptional few. This story rings a particularly poignant note for those in early middle age facing the next part of their lives. This story is considered Tolstoy's best.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book, Great Price, Good Narration
- By Michael on 03-05-13
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Death of Ivan Ilych
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Matt Stewart
- Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 48
Leo Tolstoy's late masterpiece on dying and the unravelling of the values of his middle-class protagonist.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Truly engaging
- By Tom Fallon on 05-13-22
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession
- By: Leo Tolstoy, Peter Carson - translator
- Narrated by: Ken Kliban
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
A pairing of Tolstoy's most spiritual and existential works of fiction and nonfiction from the renowned translator of Turgenev and Chekhov. In the last two days of his own life, Peter Carson completed these new translations of The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession before he succumbed to cancer in January 2013. In Carson's shimmering prose, these two transcendent works are presented in their most faithful rendering in English.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great Tolstoy Intro; Ilyich Narration is Painful
- By Rich on 04-03-16
By: Leo Tolstoy, and others
What listeners say about The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Albert Theodore
- 05-16-15
Ok Kind of hard to follow
The Death of Ivan Ilyich has a good message and was an ok story. The others were just kind of odd and hard to get into.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Nikki k.
- 11-21-20
This is not the short stories like it says,
this is only the 12 chapter story of how Ivan Ilyich died not the short stories audiobook.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- wylie smith
- 10-18-24
post-crisis Tolstoy
The two novellas and three short stories here were all written after Tolstoy's religious/psychological upheaval over the meaning of life and death. Personally, I find these tales a bit judgmentally moralistic for my taste. There is no Levin (Anna Karenina) nor Bezukhov (War and Peace) to offset Tolstoy's disappointed view of humanity. (Levin and Bezukhov are generally regarded fas standing in for Tolstoy and his views.) The gentry are pretty much portrayed as shallow and pleasure-loving, even if the chasing after pleasure only offers the reward of not seeing the suffering in the world. Most of the characters in "The Forged Coupon" are morally weak while the actual story shifts from one character to another, only cohering at the end - provided one can keep one Russian distinct from another, which I must admit I did not. "The Young Tsar" struck me as a rewrite of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" with the tsar's dreams taking him from place to place as the ghosts did for Scrooge in Dickens. I read these tales 50 years ago, but they did not improve with age for me.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Julie
- 07-11-12
Draw out
What disappointed you about The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories?
The story was drawn out and difficult to ascertain what the moral of the story was. The character names sounded very similar to each other so the story was a little hard to follow at times
What could Leo Tolstoy have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Have very different names for the characters
Would you listen to another book narrated by George K. Wilson?
Yes
What character would you cut from The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories?
Mmm...
Any additional comments?
Some of the other stories I was surprised when they ended...there was no definite conclusion.
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